Sunday, January 22, 2012

No-Bake Granola Balls

So I was perusing Pinterest one night (story of my life!), when I came across these No-Bake Energy Balls brought to you by Smashed Peas and Carrots. Within 10 minutes of seeing the post, I was already making them with what I already had in my kitchen. The recipe below is not exactly the same (I used hemp seeds instead of flax for more protein, and omitted the chocolate chips, simply drizzling chocolate on some of them), but that's the great thing about this recipe! It's easily adaptable to what you already have at home/what you are feeling like that day. Needless to say, these did not last very long in my house! A mere two days later and I was back in my kitchen making another batch (double this time!). As Maggie from Smashed Peas and Carrots says "Good thing they are easy to make, another batch is never too far away".

Ingredients

- 1 cup uncooked oatmeal (I like wild oats)

- 1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)

- 1/3 cup liquid honey

- 1 cup coconut flakes

- 1/2 cup hemp seed (or flax)

- 1 bar (1 oz.) Baker's* dark chocolate (optional)

* You could try using chocolate chips instead, but I find that Baker's chocolate tends to hold up a bit better (i.e. not as sticky when it dries).

Directions

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Let mixture rest in fridge for about 1/2 hour (this will help them stay together when you roll them).

Roll into tbsp sized balls.

Melt chocolate in microwave safe bowl and transfer to a sandwich bag. Snip a small tip off the corner of the sandwich bag and drizzle away!

Let balls set in fridge for another 1/2 hour before serving.

Or try pressing them into a granola bar mold for an awesome granola bar!

I purchased mine through Tupperware, but I have seen them at Walmart as well. If you don't have a mold, you could always put it in a pan (the key is to press it down really well), let sit in fridge for 30 min - 1 hour and then cut into bars. If your not too worried about the shape, 2 muffin tins would work great for both a mold, and something to press the granola down (i.e. fill one pan with granola, then press one the other pan on top of it to compact ingredients).

Thank you for your comments :) Whether or not to use sweetened or unsweetened coconut is totally up to you! I prefer sweetened coconut because I have a major sweet tooth, but my husband prefers the unsweetened variety . Both kinds turn out great, one is just sweeter than the other :)

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Welcome to Cooking With Jax! I'm Jacqueline (Jax) and I created this blog in January 2011 as a way to share my recipes with friends and family. Everyone was always asking me "Can I have your recipe for..." so I figured a blog would be a fun, easy way to not only catalogue my recipes, but to share them with the world. You can read more about me here.